Annex May Seek Re-funding

May 10, 1986|By John McCarron, Urban affairs writer.

McCormick Place officials said Friday that they may ask the state legislature to approve a refinancing of their expansion project to save $15 million, although they denied the extra money is needed to finish the annex hall.

``It`s just an opportunity to save taxpayers some money,`` said former Gov. Richard Ogilvie, the trustee in charge of the project. The annex can be completed with funds on hand, he said.

Ogilvie denied a report in The Tribune that refinancing the construction bonds at current low interest rates might be necessary if the troubled project is to be finished without asking the legislature for more money.

As evidence, he pointed to lower-than-expected settlements of contractors` delay claims that were approved at Friday`s meeting of the McCormick Place board.

The Great Lakes Plumbing and Heating Co., for instance, agreed to a $1 million payment to satisfy claims once valued at $3.3 million. And the Climatemp Corp., which is installing ventilation ducts, accepted $293,000 instead of a much larger earlier request.

Another contractor with a major delay claim, the Johnson/Garth masonry joint venture, has agreed Thursday to accept $350,000 as settlement of what had been a $1.3 million claim.

Mounting contractor claims had threatened to push the project over its $312 million budget, but many are now being settled rapidly in closed-door sessions between the comapnies and project manager Robert Christensen and his attorney, Herbert Morton.

Still to be settled, however, are a $3 million claim by the contractor building the railroad tunnel beneath the hall and a similar claim expected from the concrete contractor.

Board member Bernard Weissbourd said the low settlements bespeak a new spirit of ``trust and confidence`` between contractors and project management. Project insiders, however, say contractors know they are vulnerable to counterclaims by McCormick Place for delays of their own and for below par compliance with minority hiring quotas that are part of their contracts.

Regarding the possible refinancing of the project, board member Anthony Mandolini said that proposals have been received from Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Prudential-Bache Securities Inc.